The COST Action on The Dynamics of Virtual Work organised a lively and important scientific workshop on June 21st-22nd 2013, at King’s College on The Strand in central London. The Workshop, organised by MC member Rosalind Gill, together with her colleagues Christina Scharff and Tim Jordan from King’s College London, with the support of the Grantholders, University of Hertfordshire, was focussed on Cultural Work, Subjectivity and Technology. The event ranged over two days, with an opening plenary panel featuring Gina Neff (University of Washington), Melissa Gregg (Intel, California), Kate Oakley (Leeds University), Leslie Regan Shade (University of Toronto), Morag Shiach (Queen Mary University) and the Action’s leader, Ursula Huws (University of Hertfordshire). Panellists each spoke for ten minutes about what they saw as the most pressing issues for those interested in cultural work. The plenary was followed by a reception at which Stephanie Taylor and Karen Littleton’s book ‘Contemporary Identities of Creativity and Creative Work’ (Palgrave) was launched.
The next day started with a panel on Gender and Creative Labour, with talks from Rosalind Gill, Bridget Conor and Christina Scharff (all from King’s College London) and Larissa Hjorth (from RMIT, Melbourne). A session on The Politics of Creative Labour featured contributions from Mark Banks and Stephanie Taylor (Open University) and Stephen Shukaitis (Essex University). Panel three, after lunch, examined Technology and the International Division of Labour with Toby Miller (City University), Lisa McLaughlin (Ohio University), Christian Fuchs (Research Group, Unified Theory of Information, Vienna) and Jack Qiu (Chinese University of Hong Kong). Finally the day concluded with discussions of Technology, Affect and Place from Tim Jordan and Andy Pratt (King’s College London) and Vili Lehdonvirta (University of Turku).
The event was greatly appreciated by speakers and the 80 attendees. Many people attending were in London as a result of the large North American-organised international conference ICA – which helped keep costs low – and expressed their enthusiasm for the intimate, dialogue-focussed, congenial atmosphere of the event, plus the chance to hear eminent international speakers speaking about virtual work and cultural work.
Session 3, Day 2
Audience – Day 2
Dinner, Day 1
